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-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted
from the Sept. 12, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
The movement to abolish the death penalty and the struggle for immigrant rights won a victory in August. A court ordered the state to remove Ricardo Aldape Guerra from Texas' death row, and either retry or release him.
Representatives of a range of groups-the Union of Families of Mexicans Condemned to Death, the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Coordinadora '96, the Committee in Zolidarity with the People of Mexico, and the Salvadoran community organization GANO-held a news conference Sept. 2. They announced a campaign to pressure the Houston district attorney to drop the charges and release Aldape Guerra immediately.
Plans for a demonstration on Sept. 16--Mexican Independence Day-were announced. The protest will take place outside the county jail in downtown Houston. That's where Guerra is currently being held.
A hearing on motions in his case is set for Oct. 18, and a new trial for Dec. 2.
Cristobal Hinojosa of the Committee in Zolidarity with the People of Mexico told reporters there is no excuse to hold an innocent person for 14 years. He said: "The struggle for Ricardo comes from Mexico and crosses into the U.S. His case is one of a violation of human rights."
Salvadoran organizer Gonzalo Fernandez said, "All of the Hispanic community, not just the Mexicanos, support Ricardo."
Beatrice Torres, Coordinadora `96 organizer and a member of the Union of Families of Mexicans Condemned to Death, demanded that "all charges be immediately dropped and Ricardo set free." Coordinadora `96 is planning the mass march for immigrant rights set for Oct. 12 in Washington.
"The courts thought Ricardo was a poor Mexican that nobody cared about, who could be railroaded to be executed. But they were wrong. People do care about Ricardo. And we will support him until he is released," said Marta Glass.
Glass is with the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The state of Louisiana executed her husband Jimmy Glass in 1987.
Aldape Guerra had been in the United States only two months when he was arrested, tried and sentenced to die for the killing of a Houston police officer in July 1982. During his trial the Ku Klux Klan, in hoods and white sheets, demonstrated outside the courthouse.
The Klanners called on racists to "protect our borders from the swarms of illegal aliens coming across the Rio Grande." Inside the courthouse, racist terminology about undocumented immigrants was bandied about as the prosecutors tried and convicted a person they knew was innocent.
Recently-finally, after 14 long years-a federal-court judge ordered Guerra released from death row. The state must retry him or release him, the judge said. Guerra is now in the Harris County Jail in Houston, awaiting the district attorney's decision.
Since 1982, the prisoner has received wide support-both in Texas and in his homeland of Mexico. Support committees organized mass demonstrations, led by Houston's big Mexican community. His case made headlines all over Mexico, where people were outraged that the United States could possibly execute one of their citizens.
[Information on supporting Guerra is available from TCADP at (713) 523-8454 or Coordinadora '96 at (713) 926-2786.]
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)